ABSTRACT
Most countries impose special expenditure taxes on alcohol and there is a long history of high alcohol taxation in the UK. Spirits have attracted a higher rate of tax than other beverages but there is little evidence to suggest that different beverages in themselves have different harmful effects. Along with the historic inconsistencies in tax levels between beverages, it is difficult to discern a clear pattern in the annual budgets that determines any changes in tax levels. Table 2.1 shows the changes to specific alcohol taxes made in the annual UK budget in the past few years. Analysis of budgets suggest that these changes in tax are made for a mixture of immediate revenue needs and possibly in response to industrial lobbying rather than as a means of achieving social policy objectives (Leedham and Godfrey, 1990).
